Colleen Derr Named New President of Wesley Seminary at Indiana Wesleyan University

Indiana Wesleyan University announced on April 3, 2017, that Colleen Derr, Ed.D., has been named the new president of Wesley Seminary at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Indiana. Derr will begin her new role on July 1.

Derr has been part of Wesley Seminary since 2011 and has served as assistant dean and as an associate professor. She chairs the Seminary faculty, has served as a member of the University Faculty Senate, and has been active on numerous university committees. She is currently part of the team developing a Doctor of Ministry in Formation, which is scheduled to launch in the fall of 2018. She also helped develop the Master of Arts in Children, Youth and Family Ministry.

Derr succeeds Jo Anne Lyon, who has served as interim president since the departure of Wayne Schmidt, D.Min., the seminary’s first president. The seminary opened in 2009. Schmidt left after being elected General Superintendent of the North American General Conference of The Wesleyan Church in 2016. In her statement, Derr credited the team that envisioned the seminary and said Schmidt’s leadership “propelled us from zero to 500,” a reference to enrollment growth. “I know that God is going to use me in a powerful way to continue to help Wesley Seminary grow,” she said.

David Wright, Ph.D., president of Indiana Wesleyan University, announced the appointment to the university community. He described Derr as “an advocate and resource for an array of church ministries, an effective administrator and a wise and dynamic leader.”

According to the university, Wesley Seminary serves more than 500 students in 34 states and 11 countries. The seminary offers programs in Spanish, and its student body is almost 40 percent ethnic minority. The seminary was formed by the university’s Board of Trustees in April 2009 to offer a practical, student-centered approach for busy, working ministers, who can remain in their current ministry settings while attending. Its offerings include a Doctor of Ministry, a Master of Divinity, a Master of Arts, a Master of Practical Theology, and certificate programs in church revitalization, children, youth and family ministry, and church planting and multiplication.

Derr holds a Master of Arts in Ministry Leadership from Indiana Wesleyan University and a Doctor of Education in Christian Education Leadership from Regent University. Indiana Wesleyan University describes itself as a Christian comprehensive university of The Wesleyan Church. Wright said the seminary “is being used by God to engage and equip pastors to lead their churches and reach individuals for Christ.”

Source: Read the original report